Brand New Congress candidate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez one of four progressive legislators to join House Oversight Committee

WASHINGTON (Jan. 24, 2019)–Four progressive legislators – including Brand New Congress candidate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) – have secured positions on the influential House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and the panel has already set its sights on a “wide-ranging” investigation of security clearance problems at the White House.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) joins fellow freshmen Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), as well as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on the 15-member committee. Chaired by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the panel is the main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, with the authority to investigate allegations of fraud within the federal government, including the Executive branch.

The newly formed House Oversight Committee has already announced its first priority: to investigate who has been granted security clearances by the Trump administration, and why. The probe is a response to the “grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration, including by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and others,” said Rep. Cummings in a statement.

The addition of four progressive voices, each of whom has expressed a commitment to root out corruption in the federal government, represents another pivotal milestone in what’s shaping up to be a meaningful session for the House.

This marks the second important committee appointment for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez in just two weeks. On January 15, she secured a position on the House Financial Services Committee, a regulatory body with oversight of the U.S. financial sector.

In Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, both committees add a congressperson who has pledged to refuse all corporate PAC donations during her tenure in office and who supports important policy positions such as campaign finance reform. The American people need more representatives like this to hold our government accountable to the public.

Brand New Congress recruited Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress back in 2017. She was one of 32 BNC candidates who ran in the 2018 elections, and the organization continues to search nationwide for regular, everyday people to run for office in the 2020 election cycle. BNC seeks progressive candidates with fresh ideas, powerful voices, and a desire to shape the future of our country for the better. To nominate a potential candidate, visit brandnewcongress.org/nomination.

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BNC is a post-partisan federal political action committee supporting Democrats, Republicans and Independents who push for progressive legislation such as Medicare for All, $15 minimum wage, clean energy initiatives, tuition-free education, abolition of ICE and others. All BNC candidates have taken a pledge to refuse corporate PAC dollars. For more about Brand New Congress please visit brandnewcongress.org.

Manny Veiga is a writer and marketing professional, currently living in Boston. He volunteers with Brand New Congress as a contributor on our communications team, including press releases, blog posts, and podcasts.